Some regional fuel terminals seeing short-term outages

August 28, 2008

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Industry officials say they are mystified by fuel shortages at terminals in the Upper Midwest in recent days, but they expect enough supplies for the Labor Day weekend. Terminals have run out of fuel in West Fargo and Grand Forks in North Dakota; Alexandria, Minn.; and Sioux Falls. Officials are trying to figure out why. ''That's the million-dollar question,'' said Dawna Leitzke, executive director of the South Dakota Petroleum and Propane Marketers Association. Dozens of tanker trucks lined up in West Fargo on Wednesday, after a new batch of fuel was delivered. Bruce Heine, a spokesman for Magellan Midstream Partners LP, which runs a network of pipelines and distribution terminals, said the pipeline is not to blame for any shortage. ''We don't own the (fuel) inventory in our system,'' he said. ''If we don't have adequate supply to match up with demand, then we encounter some short-term outages.'' Jake Reint, a spokesman for the Flint Hills Resources refinery in Rosemount, Minn., one of the pipeline suppliers, said he was not aware of any supply problems.